If you count Jacob Lopez's work opening for the A's on Friday along with Gage Jump's start against the White Sox today, left-handed starters have held the White Sox to two runs over 24 ⅔ innings over the last five games.
Fortunately, one of those runs came in Saturday's game, and that run was enough to win it.
The White Sox jumped Jump for two-man two-out rally before the sixth inning came to a close to break a scoreless tie, and Sean Newcomb and Grant Taylor were able to work out of some sticky situations in the seventh and eighth to preserve a four-hit shutout that required the services of five pitchers.
"At the end of the year, they don’t ask how you win the games," said Chase Meidroth. "It’s all about your record. Any way you can win a game is great."
Jump's final out was a dramatic one, as he somehow gloved Miguel Vargas' hot shot with a blind behind-the-back effort. It was not the final out of the inning, though, and the White Sox didn't let him have it. Colson Montgomery worked a seven-pitch walk to keep the inning alive, and then Meidroth hooked a high fastball toward the left field corner. Montgomery was able to score all the way from first with no throw to put the Sox ahead.
And that's where the Sox stayed, despite two legit threats.
Erick Fedde picked up the win with four-plus scoreless innings of bulk boy work, but it threatened to become a no-decision when Joshua Kuroda-Grauer doubled to lead off the seventh, chasing Fedde from the game and being the reason for the "plus." Sean Newcomb entered and walked Lawrence Butler, but he sawed off Colby Thomas for a popout, nearly got Alika Williams to fly into a 9-6 double play, and when that initial call was overturned, he recovered to strike out Henry Bolte to strand the runners.
But then Newcomb allowed a leadoff triple to Jacob Wilson to open the eighth -- it should've been a double, but Braden Montgomery took a bad angle in the corner -- and although Luisangel Acuña smothered a Tyler Soderstrom grounder for the first out, he'd need the kind of help that he provided Fedde to emerge unscathed. Taylor answered the call, striking out Shea Langeliers, before getting Jonah Heim to ground out to Acuña to preserve the one-run lead.
Taylor then came back out for the ninth, and it went far better than it did against Cleveland. He walked Butler with one out, but otherwise kept the drama minimal for his fourth save of the season.
"When I first started doing multiples, it was a little bit of an adjustment to keep momentum from coming in, in a guy-on-third, one-out situation," Taylor said. "I’ve gotten pretty good at it so far."
The White Sox will need to figure out their issues against lefties over the break, because they once again struggled to string together productive plate appearances. They created a couple of opportunities, but they disappeared as quickly as they emerged. Vargas grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to get Jump out of trouble in the third, and a leadoff double by Acuña in the fifth went nowhere as Junior Pérez grounded out, Drew Romo struck out, and Randal Grichuk grounded out.
Fortunately, the White Sox's run-prevention efforts answered the call. Acuña took a starring role from the start, making a diving stop on the other side of second to steal a single from Soderstrom in the first, flagging down a Heim popup in shallow center in the second, and handled four chances over the last two innings.
"Great defense behind them, starting with Acuña, who made a ton of great plays," said Will Venable. "That’s why he’s out there – his ability to defend at the shortstop position is obviously impressive."
While Acuña led in terms of quantity, Grichuk made the most crucial defensive play in the second. Chris Murphy should've had runners on first and second with two outs after Carlos Cortes flied out to right, but Braden Montgomery overreacted to the threat of a tag and fired wildly to third, allowing both runners to move up. Both runners then appeared primed to score when Jeff McNeil hit a flare to left field, but Grichuk closed on it and laid out for a diving catch to keep the Athletics off the board, which is where they remained.
Bullet points:
*Bryan Hudson opened with a 1-2-3 inning and Murphy survived the second to set up Fedde's winning line: 4+ IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K. He now has a 3.83 ERA as a reliever.
"Early in the year I was leaning so much on the sweeper, it was taking away from other things," Fedde said. "I’ve been focusing on getting back to the heater and we’re seeing a lot of success with it, maybe teams not even preparing for it as much. I think it’s been a really nice mix up here the last couple starts."
*Acuña had one of the few strong days at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a strikeout. Alas, the strikeout came against a righty with two on and two outs in the sixth, but he's seemed to find his niche.
*Having watched the White Sox score 14 the night before, it was all reminscent of the White Sox scoring 22 runs against the Royals, and then two the next day. Then again, they won both of those games, too.
*The White Sox went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, but the A's were 0-for-10.
